I’ve been trying not to share this picture with you all day. I wanted to wait until I could tell you the whole story behind it, with the fact and figures it demands. But I can’t wait  anymore because the experience I had today was so incredible that I want to share it with you now, while it’s still fresh, while I’m still processing what I experienced . I want you to see it while I’m here.

Here is Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I am here on a trip with a few other writers to explore the Sandals Foundation – the charitable arm of Sandals Resorts.  I’m staying at the gorgeous Beaches Ocho Rios and the photos from there (I’ve shared a few on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook) are story-worthy too.

But not like this photo:

Sandals Foundation

These four adorable people are my reading buddies. Dorian, Shantae, Gabrielle and Maurice. Four Grade One Students at Stewart Town ECI. They are funny and precocious and loving, and they are learning to read thanks to the program run by the Sandals Foundation.  For many of their classmates, reading is especially hard because their parents can’t read either. And even these incredible kids who really want this are struggling because they don’t have the proper materials to make it happen. I’ll tell you more about this – and how you can help and how you too can visit the school and read with the kids and have your heart broken and healed all in a few hours  – in stories to come, but today I just wanted you to see them. Perfection.